Rules and Alerts play an important role in structuring and organizing your inboxes. The feature lets you create actions that are applied to incoming messages . And, based on matching conditions they can be moved to specified folders, replied to automatically and a lot more. In short, they help you reduce manual effort. Now, chances are always there that you end up losing these rules due to some malfunction. These rules are stored as part of your outlook profile. And, any harm or loss of profile can kill the set of rules that you accumulated over time. Cool Tip: Love keeping your calendars in sync with your MS Outlook email desktop client? Here’s how you can sync your Google calendar with it. So, if you heavily rely on Outlook email rules, you should consider taking a backup so that you can always import them if you were to lose them. In this post we will learn how to export/back up and import MS Outlook rules. To perform any of the two actions follow the steps below. Our tutorial is based out of MS Outlook 2013. The steps would be pretty much same on lower versions. Step 1: Navigate to the File menu on the ribbon and open it. Step 2: You will be taken to Account Information page. Click on Manage Rules & Alerts icon. Step 3: The Rules and Alerts dialog will open. Click on the Options button. Step 4: Based on what you wish to do, scroll to one of the two sections describes below.
How to Export Outlook Email Rules
Once you are on the Options dialog, click on Export Rules button. Then, choose a storage location, give the file an appropriate name and Save it. Exporting rules and saving a local copy is equivalent to taking a backup. Note: If you want to export rules that are only compatible to previous versions of MS Outlook, then choose the appropriate file type.
How to Import the Rules
Once you are on the Options dialog, click on Import Rules button. Then, navigate to the location where the backup or exported file is stored. Choose the correct file and click Open. Note: If you are using an older version of MS Outlook then you may want to import rules that are only compatible with that tool. In such a case, select the .rwz file and then choose the appropriate file type.
Conclusion
Next time your profile encounters a malfunction and you end up losing the rules you had created over time, you have no reason to worry. Now you know how to back them up. Also, if you wish to uninstall the software and install again, the feature might be the thing you needed. Besides, taking rules from one machine to another or sharing with friends and family can get easier. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
